To Live and Write in LA

Anthem FilmFest: ‘Searching for Eddie Running Wolf’

Searching for Eddie Running Wolf, a feature length documentary by director Thomas Hartmann, defies easy classification.

Anthem Film Fest: Rand in the Desert

This article originally appeared on blogcritics.org I started reading works by Ayn Rand in high school 50 years ago, and I’ve never been able to shake entirely free of her ideas. Now I go to the desert to contemplate those ideas. OK, it’s not quite as mystical as it sounds, because that part of the […]

‘Atlas Shrugged Part 1’ – The 40-Year Wait is Over

(Originally published on blogcritics.org) Producer John Aglialoro obtained the rights to Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged 18 years ago. Several attempts to move forward with the film failed. In April 2010, he called Harmon Kaslow and told him he had three months to start filming or the rights world revert to Ayn Rand’s literary estate. By June, the […]

James Cameron’s Avatar: Philosophical Roots

(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) The function of the critic is twofold: Identify what the author/artist/filmmaker is trying to say, then evaluate how well they say it. Many critiques have identified the anti-technology, anti-Western feel of Avatar, but to understand it, and why it influences so many people, you need to understand its philosophical roots. The theme […]

Where dreams come from